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PS Plus in October: DriveClub, Dust, Arkham Asylum
Sony announced October's PlayStation Plus lineup today, revealing that service subscribers will receive free copies of Batman: Arkham Asylum, Dust: An Elysian Tail, Spelunky, and other featured games starting next week. PlayStation 4 owners will receive newly-released ports of Dean Dodrill's 2D action-adventure game Dust: An Elysian Tail and Mossmouth's roguelike platformer Spelunky, along with a PlayStation Plus-exclusive version of Evolution Studios' long-in-development racer Driveclub. Landmark comic-based brawler Batman: Arkham Asylum and Capcom's arcade beat-'em-up compilation Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara arrive as this month's featured PlayStation 3 releases, while the PS Vita gets the multiplayer maze game Pix the Cat and tactical RPG Rainbow Moon. Subscribers who download Spelunky will get free access to previously-released PlayStation 3 and PS Vita ports, and Pix the Cat and Rainbow Moon are also available as Cross-Buy downloads. October's PlayStation Plus lineup goes live on October 7. [Video: Sony]
Dust: An Elysian Tail swishes to PS4 in 1080p, 60fps
Dust: An Elysian Tail is getting a second shot at console stardom in the near future when Dean Dodrill's anthropomorphic action exploration game jumps to PlayStation 4. Dodrill announced the new port via the PlayStation Blog on Thursday, allowing Fidget, the game's lovably freaky cat-bat character thing, to cover the pertinent details. "Imagine a 2D side-scrolling platformer, with crazy-fast swordplay and screen-clearing MAGIC supplied by yours truly. There are power-ups! Special abilities! Hidden passages! A whole world of STUFF to find!" says Fidget, clearly still enthused about her first project as a freaky cat-bat thing. "Now, if you can, imagine all this awesomeness is hand-drawn like an old animated movie from the 80s and 90s, but with art at crazy high resomolutions! Like, 1080p! People tell me that's pretty darn good! Also, 60fps. I'm guessing that's some sort of speed? Like, the speed of awesome? I don't know much about these things, though. I mean, look at my hands! I'm not plugging anything into expensive TVs with these ham-hocks." Dust was originally released on Xbox 360 in 2012 to critical acclaim, after Dodrill built the game largely on his own starting in 2008. The Metroid-style quest eventually released on Windows, Mac, and Linux as well. [Images: Humble Hearts]
May Games With Gold: Dust: An Elysian Tail, Saints Row The Third
Microsoft's Games With Gold promotion rolls on, bringing two new, free games to Xbox Live Gold subscribers during the month of May. The first game, according to a new blog entry from Xbox figurehead Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb, will be Dust: An Elysian Tail, which will be available from May 1 to May 15 for gratis download. Our review knocked Dust: An Elyisan Tail for doing little to innovate as a platform-action game, but said the game "does manage to look and play beautifully throughout." From May 16 to May 31, Xbox Live Gold subscribers will be able to download Saints Row The Third at no cost. Our review of Volition's over-the-top open world action hit awarded the game four and a half stars, and pointed out that Saints Row The Third genuinely feels like a labor of love from its creators, that offers a stunning number of things to do and wacky, entertaining sights to see. Like all Games With Gold offerings, these two games will be available for free download to anyone with a valid Xbox Live Gold subscription and a functional connection to the Xbox Live Marketplace. Once downloaded, they become yours to keep, whether you renew your Xbox Live Gold subscription or not. [Image: Deep Silver/Humble Hearts]
Dust: An Elysian Tail pulls off 1 million sale combo
Action adventure game Dust: An Elysian Tail has chained together 1 million sales, developer Dean Dodrill announced on Twitter yesterday. Dust follows the tail tale of an amnesia-ridden warrior and his fluttering sidekick, Fidget, as they piece together his past and present identity. After clearing a million sales however, we don't think Dust's name is going to be forgotten again any time soon. Dust originally launched on Xbox Live Arcade in August 2012, going on to reach Steam, GOG and participate in a Humble Bundle. It also won Microsoft's $40,000 Dream-Build-Play award in 2009. Just before his sales announcement, Dodrill tweeted that he was thinking of taking on "something small" before diving into his next big game, but whether that's a smaller game or something else entirely remains to be seen. [Image: Humble Hearts]
Humble Indie Bundle 11: Guacamelee, The Swapper, Antichamber and more
There's a very tempting collection on sale over at Humble Bundle right now. Humble Indie Bundle 11 tosses together four indie treasures: Guacamelee, Dust: An Elysian Tail, Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams and The Swapper. Pay more than the average and you'll also get Antichamber and Monaco: What's Yours Is Mine. Guacamelee is Drinkbox Studios' lucha libre-inspired action platformer, while Dust: An Elysian Tail is Dean Dodrill's beautifully-animated action role-playing game. Giana Sisters, from Black Forest Games, is a difficult 2D platformer, The Swapper is a lauded puzzle game built around a cloning device, Antichamber is a psychological first-person exploration game and Monaco is all about pulling off heists with up to three other buddies. This bundle will be live for the next two weeks, and the Humble Bundle folks assure us new games will be added before the sale period ends. In order to secure those additional games, you'll need to pay beyond the average – which is hovering around $4 as of right now. [Image: Drinkbox Studios]
Game Music Bundle 6 offers tunes from Guacamelee, Braid and more
For two years, the Game Music Bundle series has served as a convenient alternative to leaving games running in the background to listen to music. Its sixth entry aims to do the very same with over 20 soundtracks, including Fez composer Disasterpeace's soundtrack for Famaze. The bundle also includes the first official digital release for Braid, along with soundtracks for Guacamelee, Kentucky Route Zero, The Stanley Parable, Mighty Switch Force and more. A dollar will earn the soundtracks to Dust: An Elysian Tail, Braid, Rogue Legacy, Electronic Super Joy and Famaze, but contributing $10 will grant you all 24 albums involved in the bundle. Of course, if you'd rather give the composers more than a few cents, you can pay any amount above $10 that you feel is fair.
Steam Summer Getaway Sale: Reus, Dishonored, Terraria
The Steam Summer Getaway Sale sallies on unconcerned with the pummeling it's already put on your wallet. Today's fresh crop of discounts include Reus for $5 (which also has Steam Trading Cards), Max Payne 3 for $10, Terraria for $2.50, Killing Floor for $4, Dishonored for close to $10, Dust: An Elysian Tail for $7.50, Castle Crashers for $3.75 and Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion for $10. The Flash sale, which sees a new group of games discounted every eight hours, is currently featuring BioShock Infinite for $30, Mirror's Edge for $6, Oregon Trail: Director's Cut for $1.24 and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 for $3.39. Finally, all of yesterday's sales are also still available.
PSA: Dust: An Elysian Tail explores Steam today
As promised, Dust: An Elysian Tail has found its way to Steam today. Until May 31, you can grab Dust for $13.50, ten percent off its usual $15 asking price. The action-adventure RPG from Humble Heart made its debut on Xbox Live Arcade back in August as part of the Summer of Arcade promotion. Despite how vast Dust: An Elysian Tail is, it's actually missing a third of its intended story, which was cut due to the months of extra time it would've taken to finalize the larger vision. Even with the omitted content, Dust: An Elysian Tail turned out to be a fine game.
Dust: An Elysian Tail scampers onto Steam May 24
Next week marks the Steam debut of Humble Heart's XBLA darling, Dust: An Elysian Tail. Dean Dodrill, animator and creator of Dust, took to Twitter to announce the May 24 launch date; though there is currently no Steam product page. Dust: An Elysian Tail is a 2D action platformer in the vein of Metroid and Castlevania, featuring beautiful hand-drawn sprites throughout. Aside from being visually appealing, it's also a delight – a game our review said "doesn't do much to innovate the platform-adventure sub-genre, but it does manage to look and play beautifully throughout, and sometimes that's enough."
XBLA sale: Mark of the Ninja, Trials and more cheap until Apr. 9
Another sale has spread across Xbox Live Arcade, running until April 9. The sale's highlight is 50% off Mark of the Ninja from Klei Entertainment – one of Joystiq's favorite games of 2012 – bringing it down to 600 MS Points ($7.50).Other cheap contenders include Trials Evolution for 800 MS Points ($10) and some discounted Pinball FX 2 tables. There's also Dust: An Elysian Tale and Deadlight for 600 MS Points ($7.50) to consider.On top of this promotion highlighting Microsoft Studios games, there's also the ongoing Xbox Live Arcade Deal of the Week sale. Retro City Rampage has been knocked down to 600 MS Points ($7.50) and Quarrel is 200 MS Points ($2.50). The full list of both sales can be seen through the source links below.
Dust: An Elysian Tail coming to Steam
Humble Heart's 2012 XBLA debut Dust: An Elysian Tail is headed to Steam and could potentially be available as soon as next month, Polygon reports. The announcement was made by Dust designers Alex Kain and Dean Dodrill during a panel at PAX East, wherein Dodril explained that he isn't going to "do a whole lot different" with the PC port, being satisfied with the current experience.Dodril also teased the possibility of a Dust 2 at some point in the future, with Kain adding that there is "no shortage" of ideas for a sequel.
Xbox Live Countdown to 2013 daily deal: Dust, Deadlight and Hybrid
Today's Xbox Live deal, as part of the Xbox Live Countdown to 2013, includes sales on Dust: An Elysian Tail, Deadlight and Hybrid.Both Dust: An Elysian Tail and Deadlight are on sale for 600 Microsoft points, 50 percent off from their original prices. Hybrid can be downloaded for 400 Microsoft points, a 67 percent savings on its original 1200 point price tag. These deals are on for today only, so get downloading! %Gallery-162764%
Dust: An Elysian Tale dev had to scrap third of the game
Dust: An Elysian Tail, one of the few highlights of this year's Summer of Arcade, actually had to cut a major chunk of its story to make release. Speaking with Gamasutra, Dust co-writer Alex Kain says they had to cut a third of the game.Creator Dean Dodrill's original vision for Dust had "a massive third act," according to Kain, taking players to new locations, with a new main antagonist and refocused storyline. This would have required months more time the team didn't have, so it was cut.Kain says, "It was hard to part with the mysterious final villain, but the game ended up a lot tighter, and the story felt much more satisfying ending where it did." Gamasutra has much more on Dust in its extensive postmortem.
PSA: Dust: An Elysian Tail soundtrack is now available
While most of Xbox Live Arcade game Dust: An Elysian Tail is the result of one man's hard graft, Dean Dodrill did outsource its music to the brilliantly named HyperDuck SoundWorks. Today the Northern Irish trio made the soundtrack available for download, with all 37 tracks purchasable for £5 GBP or around $8 (or more if you're so inclined.)While we wouldn't be too far off with an awful 'Elysian easy listening' pun, the soundtrack ranges across a number of unusual genres and instruments. There are also a few songs courtesy of Alex Brandon, who worked on the soundtracks for Unreal Tournament, Alpha Protocol, and Deus Ex among others. You can listen to the songs in full on Hyperduck's Bandcamp site. Meanwhile, if you've not yet checked out our review of a certain "beautiful, quirky" adventure platformer, maybe you should.[Thanks, Alex]
These Western-developed JRPGs deserve your time
In my drawer is an unopened copy of Muramasa: The Demon Blade. Having really enjoyed it at E3, I made a point to pick up a copy for myself, then proceed to completely forget about it following a trip to Japan. It's still there, waiting for me to finally start clearing out my backlog. I thought of Muramasa recently while playing another 2D action RPG – Dust: An Elysian Tail. Dust was developed by a westerner named Dean Dodrill, but it has much in common with Japanese-developed RPGs. The art style and the storytelling are just two elements that seem to take after Dust's Japanese counterparts. That Dust has so much in common with Muramasa is a reminder that an RPG doesn't have to be developed by the Japanese to be a "JRPG." I've heard arguments to the contrary, but there is definitely a certain style at work in JRPGs, which is most apparent in their console-friendly accessibility, animated look, and their focus on storytelling. These are all traits that can be readily replicated by western developers.
Dust: An Elysian Tail review - A classic formula revisited
Every so often, a game comes along that reminds me why I play games. They aren't always perfect, but they're memorable experiences and that's what really matters. Dust: An Elysian Tail is one of those games. It certainly has its flaws, but when you get past all that you're left with a beautiful, quirky tale of self-discovery that still manages to be engaging and consistently surprising throughout.%Gallery-162764%
Dust: An Elysian Tail launch trailer told
This year's XBLA Summer of Arcade has been a mixed bag (putting it politely), but there are highlights, like this week's Dust: An Elysian Tail. Here's the launch trailer for a game that we'd quickly describe as Tales of Metroidvania.
XBLA Summer of Arcade 2012 detailed, Tony Hawk kickflips it off on July 18
XBLA's Summer of Arcade 2012 begins on July 18 with the HD-ified rebirth of Tony Hawk Pro Skater for 1200 MS Points ($15). The following week, Iron Galaxy's Angry Birds meets Boom Blox Kinect flinger Wreckateer arrives for 800 MS Points ($10), with Deadlight, Hybrid, and Dust: An Elysian Tail launching in the subsequent weeks, all for 1200 MS Points ($15) a pop.Microsoft is offering an incentive (as always) to spur multiple Summer of Arcade purchases, giving those who snag "any three of the above titles" a free 400 MS Points ($5). From the look of things, that won't be too hard a sell.Additionally, Tony Hawk Pro Skater HD is heading to PlayStation Network "a few weeks" after it launches on Xbox Live Arcade, but the rest of the Summer of Arcade games are exclusive to 360 (at least for now).
Summer of Arcade: Deadlight, Wreckateer, Tony Hawk HD, Dust: An Elysian Tale and Hybrid
During pre-show coverage of Microsoft's E3 press conference, Microsoft Studios head Phil Spencer revealed the lineup of this year's Summer of Arcade promotion.The first game he talked about was Hyrbid, 5th Cell's jetpack-driven multiplayer shooter. This was followed by a brief vignette of Deadlight, the Tequila Works side-scroller set in a post-apocalyptic world. Next was Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD from Robomodo, followed by Wreckateer for Kinect. Rounding out the list is Dust: An Elysian Tale.There's no word on when Summer of Arcade kicks off – summer, right? – but considering Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD drops in on July 11, at least we have some idea of the Summer of Arcade window.
Dust: An Elysian Tale bounding to XBLA in 2012
Despite the relative silence on Dust: An Elysian Tail since it won 2009's "Dream-Build-Play" competition, one man has been playing it daily for years now. That exclusive audience is the game's developer, Dean Dodrill, who says the game will finally be released at some point in 2012. Nay, he promises it'll be released in 2012. "It's coming out in 2012, promise," Dodrill wrote under his pseudonym "Noogy" on the Neogaf forums. He doesn't give any other details, or even a more specific launch window, but we've reached out for a more definitive date.
